Makerspace Ideas/Sites

Our Makerspace Journey. Our Makerspace has changed, grown and evolved since it was first conceived and started in January 2014.

Follow along with the story of our journey here. Hopefully it will inspire you to start your own Maker journey January 2014:
Makerspaces as classrooms: schools and hardware shops partner. Klint Kanopka still remembers the time when technology’s purpose in school could be boiled down to defeating your classmates on the Oregon Trail.

“And even shop class used to carry a negative stigma, and it was never really taken seriously,” Kanopka said. Today, the flourishing of makerspaces in Philadelphia is meeting a local tech community commitment to growing STEM learning in schools to bring about new goals . Earlier this year, the makerspace at the Academy at Palumbo was just a storage room. Kanopka, a physics teacher at the school, recognized an opportunity to turn it into a space for innovation and hands-on learning.

Steven Kurti, and Debby L. Kurt. How to Turn Any Classroom Into a Makerspace. There is a certain magic found in rolling up your sleeves and tackling a project head on, an undeniable sense of empowerment that results from solving problems and manifesting big ideas.

In essence, that’s the soul of the maker movement — creative individuals from all walks of life united by an insatiable desire to improve the world around them. Although synonymous with 3D Printing, it extends far beyond a single technology or buzzword.
Inexpensive making in the classroom. It seems like everywhere you go, someone is talking about the maker movement, making or people who are makers.

You may also be hearing about making in the classroom and, as a teacher, wondering how you might bring making to your school. The makers are taking over ISTE 2014 with sessions, hands-on playgrounds, interactive workshops and more. But why?
How the Maker Movement Is Moving into Classrooms. The Maker movement is a unique combination of artistry, circuitry, and old-fashioned craftsmanship.

Certainly, learning by doing or "making" has been happening since our ancestors refined the wheel. Don’t treat making as a sidebar to an already overtaxed curriculum. As you investigate the principles behind teaching STEAM via making, you'll see sound research from many educators throughout history, including Jean Piaget who, in 1973, wrote: [S]tudents who are thus reputedly poor in mathematics show an entirely different attitude when the problem comes from a concrete situation and is related to other interests. In 1972, Seymour Papert predicted what many complain is the state of today's apps and programs for modern students:
The Maker Movement Conquers the Classroom. Project-Based Learning | Feature The Maker Movement Conquers the Classroom A hands-on approach to STEM engages students, but how does project-based learning connect with standardized testing?

The recording is available here. I also created a resource list (adapted from a collaborative presentation with LISD librarian, Leah Mann) and year long programming ideas that I will continue to update on this page. WEBINAR RECORDING:
How Librarians are Rockin’ the Makerspace Movement. Shhh!

You’re in the library! As the great-granddaughter of a librarian, I was brought up to know that the quiet of the library was sacred space.
What Do You Do With a 3D Printer?
This is the first in a series of posts about some technology I’ve introduced or will be introducing to my library.

In my mind, the library is a place where the public can learn about new and emerging technologies without needing to invest in them. To that end, I’ve formed a technology committee at our library that will meet quarterly to talk about how we’re using the existing technology in the building and what type of technology we could introduce to the building.
My top 10 tech trends (expanded with infographic)
DIY projects, how-tos, and inspiration from geeks, makers, and hackers. How You Can Make a Makerspace Work for Your School.

​Makerspaces — school-based, concept-to-reality, hands-on learning spaces — use a comprehensive approach. They have become popular among today’s educators because of the high demand for future professionals who are not only technically skilled but also experienced in working collaboratively with their peers. For example, Peddie School (New Jersey) recently unveiled a 4,300-square-foot, state-of-the-art digital fabrication laboratory, complete with design, engineering, and testing studios.

Classroom Resources. WNET is a proud partner of the Maker Party, an initiative hosted by Mozilla, the MacArthur Foundation, and the National Writing Project in which people around the world meet up, learn to make things, and share what they've made online. This collection is designed to support the Maker Party by providing a one-stop shop of STEM and digital making resources that focus on the problem, technology, or process behind object creation. Teachers can use the collection, which is categorized into design, how to (DIY), arts and crafts, robotics, and engineering subtopics, in conjunction with hands-on activities to further this initiative.

Like the Maker Party, this collection is designed to encourage hands-on engagement in science, technology, engineering, math, and the arts.
The 4 Flavors of Makerspaces. Did you know that there are many different types of makerspaces, each with their own set of unique characteristics? This was news to me until recently so I thought I’d pass along my research on what I found were the important distinctions as well as important links. FabLabs Amsterdam Fab Lab at The Waag Society. Resources for Maker Education. How to Run an AWESOME After-school Makers Club. When I first started up my makerspace at Stewart, I knew that getting students in there after school would be the ideal time to really dive deep into projects and develop a community of makers. During those first six months, my school didn’t have afterschool clubs but was piloting during school clubs with 6th graders, so we had a small but mighty K’nex Club where we had tons of fun.

This gave me a chance to experiment with what running a club was like, and it gave me a lot of ideas for how an afterschool club could work. The next school year, my school started supporting afterschool clubs. We had a small program with about ten students. Being a magnet school, our students come from all over the county, and it can be difficult to get students to stay after-school.
How Libraries Are Becoming Modern Makerspaces. If you could ask Ben Franklin what public institution he would like to visit in America today, I bet he would say the public library. And if you asked him which part of the library, I bet he would say the makerspace.

Ben Franklin is well known as a founder of the early subscription library, the Philadelphia Library Company, almost 300 years ago. It may be less well known that Franklin used the library’s space for some of his early experiments with electricity. Today, perhaps taking a cue from Franklin, libraries across America are creating space for their patrons to experiment with all kinds of new technologies and tools to create and invent.

Starting a School Makerspace from Scratch. Maker Space In Education Series… 10 Sites To Start Making In The Classroom. Want to Start a Makerspace at School? Tips to Get Started. Dissecting the Un-Makerspace: Recycled Learning. MAKE STEAM: Giving Maker Education Some Context. Classroom Makerspace: Resources - Digital Harbor Foundation. Curious about classroom Makerspaces? Here’s how to get started.

Resources for Creating a Makerspace. What’s in a MakerSpace?
Maker Ed's Resource Library.